Tag: Career

A Day in the Life: Technology Analyst/Software Engineer

@PennCareerDay on Twitter, our day in the life feed, is back!   As we kick off OCR and Career Fair season, we hope that you’ll tune into @PennCareerDay to learn about the potential paths available to you – and keep coming back as we’ll feature a variety of careers all semester long.  On Thursday, September 15th we welcome Luke Kopakowksi (C ’09).  Luke will highlight one of the many paths  available in investment banking – technology. To learn more about Luke, please read below and don’t forget to follow on Twitter!

Luke Kopakowski is a technology analyst at Barclays Capital in New York City.  He started at Barclays with a summer internship in 2008 and then joined fulltime after graduating from Penn in 2009 with a B.A. in Physics.   He went through the year and a half grad program at Barclays Capital, rotating through 3 divisions for 6 months each.  Now, after 2 years at Barclays, he is a software engineer for the cash equities division and works mostly with java, web development, unix/linux, excel and databases/SQL.   His team manages, develops and improves a complex software system that calculates fees associated with Barclays Capital’s equities trades.

Keywords are Key

by Shannon C. Kelly                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Raise your hand if you’re looking for a job, to build your network, to make the right connections, to get noticed in your field, to enhance your reputation, etc.  If you did raise your hand and you are on LinkedIn, remember this: keywords are key.  This is not shocking, but if you are not incorporating the right terms in your profile, you may not be getting pulled up in a search.  

FastCompany published an article, titled “LinkedIn’s Algorithm Taps Talent Graph, But Still Needs Human Touch” last week.  One of the important trends discussed was LinkedIn’s algorithm to help recruiters find the talent they want in the most efficient way: typing in a few key words or phrase and, bam, candidates.   Just hitting enter can be pretty time efficient, and recruiters agree.  The moral? Be sure you are including key words in your skills section.  Look at the jobs you are interested in, the descriptions, your connections on LinkedIn – what keywords are listed?  Incorporate those terms in your own profile.

Now, as the article mentions, and DePaul Career Center’s Douglas L. Miller explains further, the human touch is still important.  Remember that.  Social media is not a replacement for in-person interaction. It is here to help get you to that point – the conference, the networking event, the interview.  When you are having the fact-to-face interaction, use those keywords to impress people and demonstrate your knowledge of the field or position. 

Embrace Your Strengths

By Claire Klieger

It sounds pretty obvious—understanding and being able to articulate your strengths will make you stand out to employers.  Regardless of your experiences, demonstrating how your abilities are central to the position make the case that you are qualified. But I often see students who, because of cultural reasons, low self-esteem, or lack of self-reflection, have trouble doing this. If you don’t feel comfortable talking about your strengths or even if you’re not sure what they may be, it’s a good time to do a little self-assessment.

You all have skills, many of them, in fact. You had to be amazing to be admitted to a place like Penn, and the fact that you are now surrounded by other extremely bright and talented individuals doesn’t lessen the strengths and abilities you possess. This is not like America’s Got Talent.  You don’t need to have a talent as overt as swallowing swords while juggling fire on a unicycle  (and thank goodness most of us don’t have to face interviewers with buzzers and buttons that display big red “X”s). Because many strengths are innate and come naturally to us, they may be easy for us to forgot or overlook.

Reacquaint yourself with the attributes that make you special by doing some introspection. Ask yourself, “what am I good at?” and “what comes easily to me?” Often times we also enjoy tasks in areas where we are naturally strong so you might also ask yourself what you seem to really enjoy. Another good way to do this and get some fresh perspective is to ask people you trust who know you well (parents, friends, mentors, etc.). Have them tell you in what areas they think you excel and what skills they see you practice almost effortlessly. The answers may surprise you and will certainly give you a boost in confidence.

Being aware of your strengths is not just essential to effectively present yourself to an employer; it also important in identifying jobs that might be a good fit.  In fact, there is evidence that picking a job or internship that allows you to use our talents on a regular basis impacts job satisfaction and productivity. A 2010 Gallup study found that only 28% of the working population is “engaged” (defined as “loyal and productive”) in their jobs. However, at organizations where the leadership was focused on employee’s strengths, 73% were engaged in the workplace. What does all of this mean? In short, you’re more likely to be successful and happy in your job if you are able to find something where your strengths and talents are utilized. So, before you start your next job or internship search, first, embrace your strengths!

 

MAYBERRY R.F.D.- Looking Back and Looking Forward

By Anne Guldin Lucas

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXw0RpWRZC4&w=480&h=390]

Most of our blog readers are probably too young to remember Mayberry R.F.D. (starring Andy Griffith and Ron Howard as a boy) on TV—unless it’s popular in reruns or in DVD collections.  Although my life wasn’t quite as hokey as it was for the characters in Mayberry, the 60s were indeed simpler times.  In my neighborhood, on summer evenings we literally sat on our porches playing cards, and drinking root beer floats or lemonade.  (Personally I never did care for Cherry Coke.)

Last weekend a longtime friend and his family visited us as they were passing through our area.  So please excuse me if this Baby Boomer becomes a bit nostalgic.  I promise there’s a point that will eventually relate to careers (sort of).

My friend arrived with his wife and the youngest of his three children—a 12-year-old daughter.  When my friend and I were twelve, we were neighbors, school mates, and members of the same swim team.  So we spent a lot of time together in our youth.  Since this friend and I have never lived in the same location since our college summers, it still feels strange to see him as an adult, with a wife and family.  I remember us as the same age as his 12-year-old daughter–braces and all!  (In fact, I got my braces off on the last day of 6th grade–the12th birthday of this same friend!)

Yet here we were last weekend—adults—middle-aged ones now, with jobs and families, sitting on the terrace of my house—MY house, not my parents’ house (or porch!).  Who could have imagined that we would actually grow up into reasonably responsible adults who owned homes, held jobs, and raised families?

Aha—that’s the point!  It happens to all of us.  Whether we had a plan when we graduated from college or whether it took years and some job changes, we do eventually grow up.  Whether it’s a straight line or a crooked path, somehow, we usually find our way to a good place—to jobs we enjoy and valued relationships that are so important to a life well lived.

During the past few weeks in my office at Penn I’ve met with triumphant students who are negotiating job offers and making plans to find apartments and move to new cities.  Congratulations to those of you who fit into this category; I know you’ve worked hard.  I’ve also met with students who feel as if they are the only one without a job and a definite plan for after graduation.  I can assure you that you are not alone in this situation.  You have also worked hard, making the most of your precious time at Penn, and you deserve to celebrate Commencement just as enthusiastically as your already employed peers.

MANY Penn seniors will wait until after graduation to begin or to resume a job search.  It’s okay.  In fact, despite the presence of Career Counselor Mother (obviously not to be confused with Tiger Mother) in their lives, neither of my young adult children had jobs upon graduation or had even begun their job searches at the time they walked up on the stage for their undergraduate diplomas.  They are now both gainfully employed, living independently, and one has even earned an MBA.  Believe me—you too will visit an old friend thirty or forty years from now and realize that amazingly, you found direction in your life—and the anxiety surrounding your first post-college job search will have faded into a blurred memory.

Although I have tried repeatedly to find a magic wand and crystal ball to aid me in helping you with your career exploration and decision making, there is ultimately no magic available to make this journey easier.  There may be serendipity along the way—and I wish you a healthy dose of it.  However, I suspect it will take some work and some self-analysis for you to merge your interests, talents, and experiences into a career choice and successful job search.

Please remember that you have lots of people to support you and cheer you on as you begin or continue on the journey to YOUR adulthood and independence—to YOUR own terrace or porch.  You know how to find us in Career Services.  Please reach out and let us know how we can help you get started on the path to your porch—and if you should happen to stumble upon a magic wand or crystal ball, feel free to bring that along too.  Maybe we can use it to look to a future with a little more Mayberry in it for us all!

Good luck with exams, hearty congratulations to the Class of 2011, and Happy Summer Vacation to all!

A Day in the Life: Healthcare Venture Capitalist

Next Tuesday, April 19th follow @PennCareerDay on Twitter to learn about another path in the wide world of venture capital – healthcare.  Ambar Bhattacharyya (SAS ’03) will contribute and talk about his career at Bessemer Venture Partners.   If you’re interested in healthcare or venture capital – follow Ambar next week! Read more about Ambar below.

Ambar Bhattacharyya is a senior associate in BVP’s Cambridge, MA office. He focuses on investments in early- and growth-stage healthcare companies and has been involved in Bessemer’s investments in Verastem and On-Q-ity.

Prior to joining Bessemer, Ambar worked as an associate at Bain Capital Ventures. There, he helped make investments in companies such as Ameritox, Accelecare, LinkedIn, iPay Technologies (acq. by Jack Henry), TargetSpot, and VMLogix (acq. by Citrix). He also served as a board observer for VMLogix, TargetSpot and EyeTel Imaging (acq. by Neurometrix).  Before Bain Capital, Ambar was the assistant to the CEO at MinuteClinic, a company that runs health clinics staffed by nurse practitioners inside retail settings and was acquired by CVS.  He began his career at Bain & Co. where he worked on projects across various industries, including healthcare, business services and technology, as well as for non-profit clients at The Bridgespan Group.  After attending business school, Ambar interned with the City of Fremont, CA, where he helped the city develop its clean-tech strategy.

Ambar holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in economics and a B.A. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated magna cum laude.  While at Penn, Ambar co-founded the Philadelphia chapter of Asha for Education, a non-profit focused on improving education in India.  Ambar is on Twitter at @AmbarBh and regularly blogs on his own site and at The Healthcare Breakfast Club.